The Democrats Have Every Reason to Be Nervous about Bill Barr's Presence in the Trump Administration

AG BARR IS THE NEMESIS OF THE DEMOCRAT CABAL. And he has a lot of help, some of it coming from scrambling Democrats themselves. • • • TREY GOWDY OFFERS ADVICE ABOUT WHERE TO LOOK FOR THE CABAL. On Sunday, BlabberBuzz published an article by Jim Hoft that was sourced from Gateway Pundit. The Hoft article's title is "BOOM! Trey Gowdy BUSTS Spygate Wide Open -- Junk Dossier Was Used 5 Times and NOT just 4 Times by Deep State -- December Transcript is Key." • Former Representative Trey Gowdy was Maria Bartiromo's guest on Sunday Morning Futures, and Hoft calls it "an EXPLOSIVE interview!" He says "Gowdy did not hold back in his spygate discussion with Maria Bartiromo." • Here's a bit of the conversation : "Trey Gowdy : "There’s a lot of serious questions that need to be asked. When did the Russian probe begin? When did it become hopelessly co-mingled with the Trump campaign? What was the factual predicate? Where are the transcripts, if any exist between the informants and the telephone calls to George Papadopoulos? Why the defensive briefing so inadequate of President Trump? Why didn’t they do a follow-up defensive briefing? That doesn’t even get to the whole FISA abuse in the fall. That’s just the spring and summer of 2016. There’s lots of questions and I hope Bill Barr finds someone who is skilled enough to answer them..." Maria Bartiromo : "I’m really glad you brought that up. The FBI’s conversations with George Papadopoulos. Because when the FBI agent sends in informants to someone they’re looking at, typically those conversations are recorded, right? Those people are wired." Trey Gowdy : "Yeah, if the bureau is going to send in an informant the informant is going to be wired. If the bureau is monitoring telephone calls there’s going to be a transcript of that. Some of us are fortunate enough to know those transcripts exist. But they haven’t been made public. And I think one in particular has the potential to actually persuade people...There is some information in these transcripts that has the potential to be a game changer if it’s ever made public...If you have exculpatory evidence that was not shown to the court, that ain’t good. I’ve seen it. Johnny (Ratcliffe) has seen it. I’d love for your viewers to see it." • Gowdy also talked about the Steele Dossier -- Trey Gowdy : "We can call it a Dossier. It sounds official. It’s really something the National Enquirer would blush if they printed it. So we know it was used four times by the United States government. What we’re trying to figure out is if it was used a fifth time in the intelligence assessment and you’ve got Brennan and Clapper and Comey, all three who know full well whether or not it was used in the intelligence assessment, but they’re giving you different versions. So there is information that exists in December of 2016 and I hope anyone who has access to it, Senator Burr, Devin (Nunes), whoever is open minded, go look at that and I think it will help you understand whether or not that Dossier, that unverified hearsay, was used five times or just four times by the United States government. It’s pretty bad if it was used four times. It’s REALLY BAD if it was used five times!" • Trey Gowdy also talked to Martha MacCallum on Fox News last week and told her the FBI cited articles and information from Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal to corroborate the Steele Dossier. BlabberBuzz souced this article from a Political Insider piece written by Chuck Ross last Wednesday. Gowdy said, according to Ross, that "when he was in office, he saw an FBI spreadsheet that cited news articles and information from longtime Clinton insider Sidney Blumenthal as corroboration for the Dossier. Gowdy did not identify what information from Blumenthal was cited, but the Clinton ally shopped around a Dossier of his own containing allegations about Donald Trump....Gowdy claimed Tuesday the FBI cited articles and information from longtime Clinton fixer Sidney Blumenthal as corroboration for claims made in the Steele Dossier, a scenario the former congressman called 'a problem.' " Gowdy told MacCallum the FBI spreadsheet laid out all of the specific claims in the Dossier, which former British spy Christopher Steele either wrote or put together. The spreadsheet also cited information the FBI believed corroborated Steele’s salacious report, he said : “I’ve seen the spreadsheet, Martha, I have seen each factual assertion listed in that Dossier, and then I’ve seen the FBI’s justification. And when you’re citing newspaper articles as corroboration for a factual assertion that you have made, you don’t need an FBI agent to go do a Google search,” said Gowdy, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and is a Fox News contributor. “When the name Sidney Blumenthal is included as part of your corroboration, and when you’re the world’s leading law enforcement agency, you have a problem.” Again, Gowdy did not further explain how the FBI used information from Blumenthal, but his claim could be a potential bombshell as investigators probe the FBI’s use of the Dossier in its investigation of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. • BlabberBuzz notes that : "Congressional Republicans have accused the FBI of improperly relying on the unverified Dossier to obtain surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. They have also faulted the FBI for failing to tell FISA court judges that Steele was investigating the Trump campaign on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC." • Sidney Blumenthal, who is one of the Clintons’ closest political allies, was also involved, states Blabber Buzz, "in shopping around a report that contained some of the same allegations about Donald Trump that were included in Steele’s Dossier. That 8-page report was authored by Cody Shearer, another longtime Clinton insider who is close friends with Blumenthal. Both Shearer and Blumenthal are considered controversial figures. Shearer first came to prominence in the early 1990s after he peddled false allegations that then-Vice President Dan Quayle bought marijuana from a man who was in prison at the time. Blumenthal helped stoke false rumors in the 2008 campaign that Barack Obama was not born in the US. Like Steele, Shearer cited sources who claimed the Russian government had sexually compromising material on Trump. No evidence has emerged supporting the claim, which Trump has vehemently denied." • BlabberBuzz also reminds us that : "Shearer’s two memos, which he put together in September and October 2016, made their way to the FBI through Steele. Blumenthal provided Shearer’s reports to Jonathan Winer, a State Department official who was Steele’s main contact to the agency. Winer gave Shearer’s document to Steele, who in turn gave the document to the FBI. The Guardian reported January 30, 2018, that Steele gave the FBI the Shearer information because he was asked to turn over any intelligence he had about Trump that might corroborate his own reporting. Steele provided Winer with information from his own Trump investigation. Winer set up a meeting for Steele at the State Department October 11, 2016. He has since left government." • BlabberBuzz says another question left unanswered by Gowdy is "whether the FBI spreadsheet he mentioned was related to the Carter Page surveillance warrants or whether it was part of the investigative file for the Trump-Russia probe in general. The special counsel’s report all but debunked the Dossier’s core claim that the Trump campaign was involved in a 'well-developed conspiracy of co-ordination' with the Russian government. The report said prosecutors were unable to establish that a conspiracy occurred." • • • TOP OBAMA ERA DEMOCRATS ARE 'NERVOUS.' Infowars wrote on Sunday an article titled "Obama’s Top FBI Lawyer Distances Himself From Steele Dossier As DOJ Investigation Looms." Infowars says : "James Baker -- the Obama FBI’s top attorney (general counsel) said on Friday that he was skeptical about the Steele Dossier, and 'concerned' about its veracity when the agency received it prior to the 2016 US election, according to the Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross. 'It was more information that we viewed, that I viewed, skeptically from the outset, and I was concerned about it and had a jaundiced eye, or looked at it with a jaundiced eye right from the outset,' Baker told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, adding 'Steele was and had been a source that we thought was reliable. He’s reporting all this information. It looks alarming. We took it seriously, but we tried to vet it.' " • The Dossier, memos compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele and funded by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the DNC -- was used by the FBI to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Steele alleged that Page provided the Trump campaign a Kremlin backchannel during the election. • Baker told Todd that he thinks the FISA warrants against Page would have been granted without the Dossier, and took a pregnant pause when asked if the Dossier was used to obtain FISA warrants on other people -- saying “I don’t think I should comment on that, I’m not sure what else the government has confirmed, I don’t want to confirm or deny anything about other potential FISA applications.” Can we take that as a 'Yes'? • And, Obama’s former intel chiefs are at odds over who exactly pushed the Dossier. According to Fox News, an email chain exists which indicates that Comey told bureau subordinates that Brennan insisted on the Dossier’s inclusion in the intelligence community assessment (ICA) on Russian interference. Also interesting is that the Dossier was referred to as “crown material” in the emails -- a possible reference to the fact that Steele is a former British spy. In a statement to Fox, however, a former CIA official “put the blame squarely on Comey.” • Comey, meanwhile, has attacked Attorney General William Barr for investigating him, tweeting on Friday : “The AG should stop sliming his own department. If there are bad facts, show us, or search for them professionally and then tell us what you found.” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton tweeted : "It’s an interesting how Comey’s comments echo the Dems talking points attacking Barr...." • Barr, says InfoWars, "has launched a wide-ranging investigation into FBI conduct during the 2016 election, making him public enemy #1 to the left. In a Friday interview with Fox News, Barr said that the use of the Steele Dossier in the FISA warrant was a 'very unusual situation,' especially one 'that on its face had a number of clear mistakes....And to use that to conduct counterintelligence against the American political campaign would be a strange development.' ” • James Baker, meanwhile, told Lawfare’s Benjamin Wittes last week that he’s ‘nervous’ about the DOJ Inspector General’s ongoing investigation into FBI/DOJ conduct surrounding the 2016 election. Baker made clear that he wanted to speak “as openly as I possibly can” about the origin of the FBI’s investigation into Donald Trump -- “to reassure the American people that it was done for lawful, legitimate reasons, and was apolitical,” according to the Washington Examiner’s Jerry Dunleavy." • • • THE STEELE DOSSIER WAS DOCTORED. BlabberBuzz"s Joe Hoft used the Gateway Pundit as a source when he wrote : "The Trump - Russia Steele Dossier that the FBI used to spy on the Trump campaign and Presidency via Carter Page appears doctored. More irrefutable evidence uncovered shows the original documents provided to the FBI were doctored....The fake Trump - Russia Dossier that Obama’s corrupt FBI and DOJ used to obtain the Carter Page FISA warrant appears doctored. Internet sleuths have uncovered material differences in the Steele Dossier. The Dossier itself was multiple pages long in various sections. One section in general indicates the document was edited. At the bottom of the page the numbers are written in sequential order....However, for pages 7 and 8 there are no page numbers on the pages in the document. This makes no sense because whoever wrote the numbers at the bottom of the page surely didn’t skip two pages and continue with listing the numbers on the bottom of the page. These pages must have been replaced. The Steele reports are also dated at the top....However, for pages 7 and 8 there are no dates recorded. Also, there is a numbering system at the top of the Dossier. The header numbering for pages 4, 5 and 6 are the same...ending in ‘086.’ However, the header numbering scheme for pages 7 and 8 end in 095 -- Then the header for page 9 goes backwards and ends in ’94’ -- Coincidentally, the one piece of information that appears on page 7 is the obviously discredited comment that there is a Russian Consulate in Miami -- Also, the dates circa the page 7-8 report are in July which indicates that perhaps the Dossier used by the FBI to file for the July 31st FISA application was different from the later version filed for the Carter Page FISA app." • Hoft says : "Per an overall review of the Dossier, the reports are not sequential and are spaced unevenly. It is also unclear if the report numbering applies to the Dossier or if it’s a running total of all the reports produced by Orbis for multiple customers in that time frame or if some of the reports have been omitted from the final publication....The reports production schedule and volume is also problematic. As can be gleaned from the below frequency graph, the report numbers between Oct-19th to Dec-13th spike from 135 to 166. Why the increase at this time? Is it because this is when more documents were manufactured for the FISA warrant application to spy on candidate and then President-elect Trump and his team? (Source Mechanics of Deception). The 'Count Increase' is an anomaly because the report number and dates do not follow his average production rates and could indicate that Steele is gaming the numbers by creating fictitious report numbers and composition dates....Additional evidence provided overnight shows that an entire section of the Dossier is included in a copy of the Dossier provided to the Senate that is not yet public....At least one memo has not been published which mentions US State Dept & it appears there has been a switcheroo of October 19, 2016 memo....The first FISA warrant was obtained in late October 2016. This section of the Dossier was provided to the FBI from someone in the Obama State Department who is a close friend of the Clintons before the first warrant was issued by the FISA Court." • Joe Hoft's conclusion? "The Trump - Russia Dossier is a scattering of bogus reports and data, with some pages and sections replaced and inserted causing the whole production to be suspect (not withstanding the outrageous and bogus claims in the reports). The Steele Dossier was an enormous pile of rubbish. It’s shocking to think that the US Intelligence agencies used this sophomoric report to spy on the President of the US!" • • • AG BARR SAYS EXPLANATIONS ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF THE RUSSIA AFFAIR "DON'T HANY TOGETHER." Townhall's Matt Vespa wrote a piece on May 16 that says : "Drip. Drip. Drip. This is getting interesting, folks. And for the Obama camp, I’d be sweating bullets. Donald Trump won the 2016 election. He’s endured two years of scrutiny for this whole Russian collusion myth that was debunked by the report submitted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. There was no collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. That is definitive now. Of course, a lot of us knew that this was a massive nothing burger because -- well -- there was never any evidence to suggest this actually occurred. Every media bombshell was nothing more than an abject embarrassment to the profession; being debunked a day or two after dropping -- all of which contained zero evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. And now, it’s our turn to go on the offensive, especially on the alleged FISA abuses that stem from this sordid affair." • Vespa notes that we know the FISA spy warrant issued for Carter Page, who served as a foreign policy advisor for the campaign, was reauthorized at least three times based, allegedly, on the Trump Dossier, a piece of political opposition research funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democrats. Former MI6 spy Christopher Steele collected it, and it hasn’t been verified. Most of it is salacious garbage -- and the Mueller report all but detonated what little credibility it had. The FBI has been accused of using it as a credible piece of evidence with Page’s warrant." BUT, says Vespa : "Attorney General William Barr is now looking into the origins of this whole Russia investigation and whether the Dossier was part of a Russian misinformation campaign. Barr is in El Salvador discussing anti-gang operations, where Fox News’ Bill Hemmer sat down for about 20 minutes with the nation’s chief law enforcement official. Barr was very direct in saying that he has more questions than answers, noting that the explanations he’s received 'don’t hang together' concerning what occurred at the DOJ during the 2016 election. Mr. Barr added that the public should know what the government was doing. 'If we’re worried about foreign influence for the very same reason we should be worried about whether government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale,' he said. Barr didn’t say that occurred, but it’s something that needs to be investigated....And given what we know now about the Trump Dossier and Mr. Steele pretty much telling government officials that his information was biased, political, and had a shelf life (i.e. needed to be released before election day) in order to impact the 2016 race, that FISA warrant looks dirtier than ever." • Vespa reports that in the Hemmer interview, AG Barr the explanations he’s received “don’t hang together,” so, we can ask, was this whole investigation a witch-hunt? Vespa says : "It looks that way. President Trump was totally exonerated of collusion with the Kremlin. It took two years....Anyone who wasn’t a moron knew there was nothing to this story. After two years, none of the so-called bombshell stories about this myth has any solid evidence. It was 24-36 hours of liberal hysteria and then nothing...because there was nothing. Barr also has zero problems with President Trump describing this investigation as a witch-hunt (via ABC News) : When asked about the President's use of the term 'witch hunt,' he said he was comfortable with it. 'Because at the time he was saying he was innocent and that he was being falsely accused. And if you're falsely accused, you would think that something was a witch hunt. I have to say when you step back and look at this, two-and-a-half years of his administration -- three years of the Trump campaign and first part of his administration -- he has been hammered for something -- for allegedly conspiring with the Russians. We now know that was simply false,' Barr said. 'I use what words I use and it was an investigation. But I think if I had been falsely accused, I would be comfortable saying it was a witch hunt.' " • Barr also called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's charge he lied under oath to Congress and committed a crime 'laughable' : "I think it's a laughable charge and I think it's largely being made to try to discredit me partly because they may be concerned about the outcome of a review of what happened during the election. But obviously, you can look at the face of my testimony and see on its face there is nothing inaccurate about it." Vespa states that Barr said that he was ready to be the new target for Democrats : "I thought I was in a position where this kind of criticism really wouldn't bother me very much." Barr called the contempt charge recommendation passed by the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee "part of the circus" : "It's part of the usual political circus that's being played out. It doesn't surprise me," he said, adding he doesn't feel threatened. Barr also said he was surprised that Robert Mueller didn't come to conclusion on whether President Trump committed obstruction of justice." • In short, Vespa says that : "Barr is going to do his job and he’s not letting outside event influence his investigation of the investigators. He also dusted off former AG Eric Holder’s criticism that he’s acting like the president’s personal attorney; with Barr adding that Holder actually fits that description when he was running the DOJ into deeper political waters that culminated with the DOJ issuing a spy warrant against a Trump official, Carter Page, based reportedly off a piece of biased political propaganda -- the Trump Dossier." • Vespa ends by reminding us that : "...it’s not just Trump who thinks the Trump-Russia investigation was a witch-hunt. A lot of voters thought it was politically motivated....And that’s based on CNN polling." • • • DEAR READERS, as the presence of Attorney General Bill barr is being felt more and more in Washington, here is the latest evidence of his importance. Fox News reported late Monday afternoon that President Trump has directed former White House Counsel Don McGahn to skip a House Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled for Tuesday, citing a Justice Department opinion that he cannot be compelled to testify about his official duties. In a statement released Monday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders blasted Democrats for continuing to pursue Trump investigations, saying they want a "wasteful and unnecessary do-over" in the wake of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe -- and describing the subpoena for McGahn as part of that. Sanders said : "The House Judiciary Committee has issued a subpoena to try and force Mr. McGahn to testify again. The Department of Justice has provided a legal opinion stating that, based on long-standing, bipartisan, and constitutional precedent, the former Counsel to the President cannot be forced to give such testimony, and Mr. McGahn has been directed to act accordingly. This action has been taken in order to ensure that future Presidents can effectively execute the responsibilities of the Office of the Presidency." • Fox News explained that the related DOJ memo said McGahn, like other senior advisors to a President, has "immunity" from being compelled to testify about his official duties. "This immunity applies to the former White House Counsel. Accordingly, Mr. McGahn is not legally required to appear and testify about matters related to his official duties as Counsel to the President," the memo said. Fox News stated : "This move could set the stage for the panel to vote to hold the former White House counsel in contempt for defying a congressionally issued subpoena. Fox News is told the committee still intends to meet on Tuesday, whether or not McGahn is present....Earlier this month, Sanders said she did not 'anticipate' that a hearing would take place. 'We consider this to be a case closed and we’re moving forward to do the work of the American people,' Sanders said on ABC News’ 'The Investigation' podcast." • The committee, led by Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., subpoenaed McGahn on April 22, days after the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which featured McGahn prominently in its section related to the obstruction of justice inquiry. This included a claim that McGahn disobeyed Trump’s call to have him seek Mueller’s removal. Mueller's report said : “On June 17, 2017, the President called [White House Counsel Don] McGahn at home and directed him to call the Acting Attorney General and say that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed. McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre.” The Mueller report also revealed that when the media reported on the President’s request, the President directed White House officials “to tell McGahn to dispute the story and create a record stating he had not been ordered to have the special counsel removed.” He did not. • Fox News says that : "The House committee's subpoena, coming amid a fight over access to the unredacted Mueller report, called for McGahn to appear before the panel to testify and provide documents related to the Mueller investigation. But earlier this month, now-White House Counsel Pat Cipollone first notified the committee that McGahn would not be allowed to comply with the subpoena, saying requests for documents and materials must go to the White House. 'The White House provided these records to Mr. McGahn in connection with its cooperation with the Special Counsel’s investigation and with the clear understanding that the records remain subject to the control of the White House for all purposes,' Cipollone wrote. 'The White House records remain legally protected from disclosure under longstanding constitutional principles, because they implicate significant Executive Branch confidentiality interests and executive privilege....Because Mr. McGahn does not have the legal right to disclose these documents to third parties, I would ask the Committee to direct any request for such records to the White House, the appropriate legal custodian.' Cipollone wrote that acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney 'has directed Mr. McGahn not to produce these White House records,' adding that the Justice Department concurs with their legal position. But Nadler has stressed the importance of McGahn’s testimony, saying it would 'help shed further light on the President’s attacks on the rule of law, and his attempts to cover up those actions by lying to the American people and requesting others to do the same.' ” • President Trump has said that he never told McGahn to fire Mueller, and tweeted last month that if he “wanted to fire Mueller, I didn’t need McGahn to do it, I could have done it myself." • This battle over McGahn's testimony is just one front in the clash between the White House and congressional Democrats. It follows the earlier vote of the House Judiciary Committee to hold AG Barr in contempt for defying a subpoena for Mueller's full and unredacted report, as well as underlying evidence and documents used in the investigation. In hat episode, President Trump, prior to the vote, asserted executive privilege over the materials in a bid to protect them from being turned over to the committee. The full House has not yet voted on whether to hold Barr in contempt of Congress. • Bill Barr makes all the difference. He is sure of his position and the law. He is not afraid of Congress or the Democrat cabal. And, he has been through the office of Attorney General before. All this makes him a formidable opponent of the Swamp's cabalistic effort to bring down a duly-elected sitting President. • Bill Barr shows every indication of following Abraham Lincoln's axiom for himself as a lawyer : "No client ever had money enough to bribe my conscience or to stop its utterance against wrong, and oppression. My conscience is my own -- my Creator's -- not man's. I shall never sink the rights of mankind to the malice, wrong, or avarice of another's wishes, though those wishes come to me in the relation of client and attorney." That makes Bill Barr enormously dangerous for the conniving Swamp Creatures.